I guess "invented" was the wrong term too. Perhaps "came up with" would have been better. Maybe not "applied" because I swear I never heard a drum beat like "Mystic Rhythms" or "Time Stand Still" before. Then again I am not as well rounded musically and culturally as some of my fellow posters. Some of you might like "bastardized" or "copped" implying that Neil took from various sources and brought the material to a much larger audience. Who knows, lots of interpretations....

The popular vote would have to come from the massive volume of Lang, Donati, Marco DVD sales and hits on Youtube (disregarding the comments). So I think there are numbers to back up my claim that the popular vote would be for Lang, Donati etc as being cutting edge on four-way interdependence and layered rhythms by a single player.

I like to think of the whole clinic versus real world music application as a car show. There are concepts that are far out but reveal ideas and indicate how far these ideas can go. But apply them to practical use of a mass-produced car and the concept most likely falls apart. However, some of the pieces of these far out concepts do make it into today's every-day cars. I like to think Neil had pieces of these drum concepts and placed them in a musical context that was in fact popular (again millions of records sold can't be wrong). Lang and Donati are sort of these far out concepts that don't necessarily reach the masses like Rush did, but still are reaching drum enthusiasts and showing what can be done with four-way independence. Let me know if anything else is incorrect, I love explaining every detail of my opinion. I'm going to go cry now ;)